PICs - Playground or 'serious' microcontroller

[selbstdual]

If it was so easy to earn money with chips why isn't everyone doing it ?

Go into detail how one could make much money with microchips. And by detail I am talking about "including proof".

[T.Jackson]

If it was so easy to earn money with chips why isn't everyone doing it ?

Go into detail how one could make much money with microchips. And by detail I am talking about "including proof".

You're completely missing the plot (or perhaps in the process of losing it) - It's the end result / product that counts, not what's inside. BTW: Good luck in getting people to give away their trade secrets on how to make it rich. LMFAO

[RussMartin]

If it was so easy to earn money with chips why isn't everyone doing it ?

It isn't clear to me whether you mean by manufacturing them or by designing with them. Also: Not everyone is doing digital or digital/analog designs. (There are still plenty of analog-only applications out there!) Further, there are a lot of people with ideas but without sufficient knowledge--especially in some fundamental aspects of electronics--to execute them.

It's my job to take another person's idea and make it a reality. I don't invent products, I design them for other people. I'm a superannuated engineer (57 as of 10 days ago), but not, I hope, completely obsolete. I'm still always learning to work with new devices and applications. And I've managed make a comfortable living doing it.

Go into detail how one could make much money with microchips. And by detail I am talking about "including proof".

Do you mean "microchips" generically? Or Microchip's (the company's) products?

I don't know what for you constitutes "proof". I'm not going to post my designs or name my clients or disclose my earnings (that's between me and the IRS!). The intellectual properties belong to me, and my clients have a proprietary interest that I am contractually obliged to honor. Unlike Melanie, I don't know any people who have become millionaires, but I do know several who have made handsome sums of money from their designs.

It wasn't a PIC application, but I did have the good fortune to have a rather unique design go into space on shuttle mission STS-95 in 1998. It used a 68HC11; the code was done mostly in Small C and the rest in assembler.

Further deponent sayeth not.

[selbstdual]

Great information.

[Normnet]

Originally Posted by Normnet:
Is BlackFin code in C?
What applications in Blackfin?
Norm

Originally answered by mister_e:
Variant of C/C++ and / Or assembler.

Mainly for multiformat audio, image processing, video. Pretty sure it's fast enough to generate color video without too much effort.

Since now i just updated some customer firmware and did some test. REALLY impressive, but... not something i would use daily.

regards
Steve

I am looking into Blackfin.
It seems to be the most powerfull uC available.
600 MHz, 32bit, interface to nand, DDR, SD, LCD, touchscreen, audio, ethernet, high speed USB and hosting, ATAPI hard drive, etc.

Drawbacks are in C, mostly BGA surface mount and IDE/compiler.

Which IDE/compiler are you using?

Norm

[mister_e]

Well, as usual when i decide to buy something i go crazy.. I byed everything which is not free or not given by Analog Device.

So go there
http://www.analog.com/processors/bla...ent/crosscore/
Select everything from Software and Third Party Tools column in full version... and that's what i used.

How much for the whole thing??? Surprise surprise

[T.Jackson]

I byed everything which is not free or not given by Analog Device.

Bought mister_e, you bought everything.

[mister_e]

That really change my life

Thanks Mr teacher

[Acetronics2]

Bought mister_e, you bought everything.

Heuuuuuu, Trent

Would you do enjoy some French grammar game ???

Not sure you could beat " Dj Kiwi " on this playground - nor some others !!!

try to be somewhat humble ... if you've not understood that after this time on the forum ...

Alain

[GrandPa]

Would you do enjoy some French grammar game ???

Alain,

Premièrement tu dois dire "Would you enjoy some French grammar game?"

Deuxièmement, après un petit coup d'oeil a tes messages précédents et a celui-ci en particulier, si je peut dire une chose c'est que tu semble manquer toi-même d'humilité en général.

Third: Try to learn humility yourself, then teach others.

J-P

[Darrel Taylor]

Be nice! No country bashing.

Back to the subject.

I was recently pleased to find a 16F877 in a professionally built Variometer. (used to measure Lift/Sink in hang gliding).

A guy was changing the batteries in his, so I asked to take a look, and there it was.

I'm sure PIC's are in all kinds of stuff. But you never know till you take the case off.

_

[RussMartin]

I'm sure PIC's are in all kinds of stuff. But you never know till you take the case off.

There's a 16C742 in my toaster!

[T.Jackson]

Heuuuuuu, Trent

Would you do enjoy some French grammar game ???

Not sure you could beat " Dj Kiwi " on this playground - nor some others !!!

try to be somewhat humble ... if you've not understood that after this time on the forum ...

Alain

Don't worry Alain, mister_e is certainly smart enough to know that, that was a genuine attempt at helping someone improve on their English skills. Further more, I'm certain that mister_e is perfectly fluent in his own native language.

[Acetronics2]

Alain,

Premièrement tu dois dire "Would you enjoy some French grammar game?"

Hé, JP


> Si tu veux me donner des cours ... commence par prendre ton dico et regarde ce que signifie "forme emphatique ...".
Ensuite regardes comment on dit ça en Anglais ...

Après, on en reparle.


Deuxièmement, après un petit coup d'oeil a tes messages précédents et a celui-ci en particulier, si je peut dire une chose c'est que tu semble manquer toi-même d'humilité en général.

> Dommage que nous ne soyons pas en vis à vis, ça ferait de joyeux moments !!!
> Ceci dit ... je suis resté modeste 1è Classe ... Général, ça me gènait un peu...

Third: Try to learn humility yourself, then teach others.

> C'est quand tu veux !!!

Alain

> PS : Apparemment, tu n'as pas remarqué qu'il existe une équipe de joyeux drilles, sur ce Forum ...

J-P

Tapes toi une bonne mousse à ma santé .... ça ira mieux après !

[T.Jackson]

Tapes toi une bonne mousse à ma santé .... ça ira mieux après !

Tapes toi une bonne mousse à ma santé .... ça ira mieux après = (Type you a good one foams to my health.... that will go better after!)

Accurate translation?

[Acetronics2]

Hi, Trent

How are you ???

The kind translation is :

Have a good beer in my honour ( honour = a little approximate ...), and everything will be better for you after that ...


The less kind Translation :

You really become boring ...



I do love ( especially for you, GrandPa !!! ) French language ... some sentences can have "interesting" different meanings !!! ...

Best regards

"The Frenchie "

[Luciano]

Hi Alain,

(Google)

Your search - "Would you do enjoy some" - did not match any documents.

* * *

Wait a couple of days and Google will return one document!

Best regards,

Luciano

[Acetronics2]

Hi, Luciano

All my English books from school ( I've kept All of them ...) tell the same :

I enjoy = I like

I do enjoy = I really like ...

No need any American speaking google ...

Straight from my browser : " but I do like to see the Oprah show when... "

One other : http://www.di-arezzo.com/france/deta...aff=netbooster


Alain

PS: My teacher's comment " Excellent ... quand il veut s'en donner la peine !!! "

[mister_e]

There's a 16C742 in my toaster!

A 12C671 in one of my previous Weller soldering station.

[GrandPa]

Hi, Luciano
All my English books from school ( I've kept All of them ...) tell the same :

I enjoy = I like

I do enjoy = I really like ...

Alain,

I'm sorry that you had such poor english teachers.

"DO" est simplement le verbe faire.

It's also used several ways. The difference between "I enjoy" and "I do enjoy" is subtle. The first mean that it's the way you feel about it usually, while the second mean this is the way you feel about it actually (this time, in this case). I agree that a loose translation can be "really", because it's really happening, but it's incorrect to say that it mean really. BTW really translated to French is "réellement"

Then, if you do really understand this, you will find that this is incorrect to say "Would you do enjoy..", while "Would you do me a favor to stop this" is correct.

J-P

[mister_e]

I know one forum who have a 'improve your english' thread... not sure it this would worth to have it here

I know my own limits, on the other side... i 'think' everybody understand what i say anyways.

Even better, Darrel have it's own Canadian to English (or Mister_e to english) dictionnary
http://www.picbasic.co.uk/forum/show...64&postcount=8

Lazy? maybe... this is why i pay someone to translate and correct my Help-files and documents

Anyways, i appreciate Trent's comment on Buyed VS. Bought. No problem at all.

PS: J-P as in Jean Pierre ?

[Acetronics2]

Jean Pierre ...

To close the subject :

1) you take the "Harrap's shorter" Dictionnary to the DO page ( p.240 for my edition ...) move to the 2 Thirds of the examples and find :

" I do believe he is a thief : je crois VRAIMENT que c'est un voleur "
Equals : I really believe he's a thief


" he did go : Il y est BIEN allé "
Equals : he really went there


" do si down : allez vous vous asseoir ! "
Equals : Will you sit down !

" ... I do like tea : j'aime bien le thé "
Equals : I really like tea


What is against all the stupidities you are telling us !!!


Would you DO enjoy : Apprécierais-tu Vraiment ...
Equals : Would you really like ...?


2) you forget I exist.

3) you DO shut up : Tu t'écrases, à la fin !

THANKS

Alain

[T.Jackson]

Alain, GrandPa is correct. But your English is actually quite good. Same goes for mister_e.

[Luciano]

Hi Alain,

Thank you for the neologism!


(Click to enlarge)

Best regards,

Luciano

[Acetronics2]

Everything in the Title !!!

Google is great ... LOL !!!

Alain

End Of File

[GrandPa]

I know one forum who have a 'improve your english' thread... not sure it this would worth to have it here

Agreed!

I know my own limits, on the other side...

Sadly, I can't say the same for everyone.

PS: J-P as in Jean Pierre ?

Yes, I'm Jean-Pierre, and I'm from Montreal too! (near Galerie d'Anjou)

P.S: On devrais peut-être se caler ensemble une bonne broue a la santé des Français un de ces quatres !!!

[mister_e]

World is so small

Yup, sounds good to me. I live in St-Hubert.

Call me when you want, my phone number is on my website.

Une biere ou douze !

[Normnet]

Originally Posted by Normnet:
Is BlackFin code in C?
What applications in Blackfin?
Norm

Originally answered by mister_e:
Variant of C/C++ and / Or assembler.

Mainly for multiformat audio, image processing, video. Pretty sure it's fast enough to generate color video without too much effort.

Since now i just updated some customer firmware and did some test. REALLY impressive, but... not something i would use daily.

regards
Steve

Did you use BGA or LQFP?
How to mount BGA?

Norm

[mister_e]

I used both. Fortunately, i know someone in Montreal who can solder them for me with the right machine. I already tried with a heat gun... it worked.. but it's not something i would use for massive production.

There's still some BGA socket.. but... hum hum, a bit expensive.

see Mill-Max and Aries Electronics as starter.

[Normnet]

Did you use some of the pins, or all and make a 6 layer board to accommodate all the via's required to connect?

Norm

[mister_e]

Multilayer of course

They also have some development board available ~400$.
http://www.analog.com/processors/bla...ationKits.html

Which model do you plan to use?

[Normnet]

Which model do you plan to use?

Available in 176-LQFP:
ADSP-BF532SBSTZ400 $14.51ea DigiKey

Audio, GLCD and SD card in 4 bit mode.

Haven't seen a programmer outside of the development boards.

Norm

[leisryan]

French built mirages have picmicro embedded in their avionics!!! mostly pic16c84 hehehe

[Acetronics2]

Hi,

Mirages are really old "flying irons" ... from the 60's

and I'd be really surprised THOMSON Avionics HAD used PIC's ...

ST 62xx ... if you really want to Joke !!!

By the way ... did the SST plane use a "Flexible architecture" too ... LOL !!!



Mitsubishi ??? my toaster and my micro-wave oven are Mitsubishi.
A VTEC Engine do no need any "Megasquirt" or so ...
It's self sufficient ...

I keep my eyes on the road ... not the screen. That's why I'm 50 !!!
Alain

[leisryan]

Sir:
Here in the Philippines those breed of engines aren't for the average person what we usually can afford are those surplus made in japan we have gigatons of used engines and japanese automotive craps in here hehehe i'm still trying to get my luck what would be the best project to reused those japanese throw-aways and make money hehehe!!! GLCD from nokia seems to be a pretty headstart since we also have tons of Nokias here!!! hehehe i'm thinking tachometer gauges, pressure gauges etc. with a touch of graphics racing design for the car enthusiast!!! hehehehe "hard to make a living while studying at the same time" I really feel sorry we're just being treated as garbage disposal but it's our fault anyway!!! but HEY those trash are rembrandts with a touch of PIC!!!
Yours Trully,
Ryan

[RussMartin]

A few days ago, replacing my household thermostat, I discovered a PIC16LCR57C inside.

[Sergeant]

I was just browsing Jack Ganssle's web site and when I saw this bit (http://www.ganssle.com/articles/asmall.htm) excerpted below:

*************
I'm fascinated with Microchip's PIC16/17 processors, which seem to be squeezing into a lot of low end applications. These are cool parts. The smaller members of the family offer a minimum amount of compute capability that is ideal for simple, cost-sensitive systems. Higher-end versions are well suited for more complicated control applications

Designer's seem to view these CPUs as something other than computers. "Oh, yeah, we tossed in a couple of PIC16s to handle the microswitches," the engineer relates, as if the part were nothing more than a PAL. This is a bit different from the bloodied, battered look you'll get from the haggard designer trying to ship a 68030-based controller. The microcontroller is easy to use simply because it is stuffed into easy applications.

L.A. Gear sells sneakers that blink an LED when you walk. A PIC16C5x powers these for months or years without replacing the battery. Scientists tag animals in the wild with expendable subcutaneous tracking devices powered by these parts. Household appliances depend on PIC variants.

A friend developing instruments based on a 32 bit CPU discovered that his PLDs don't always properly recover from brown-out conditions. He stuffed a $2 Microchip controller on the board to properly sequence the PLD's reset signals, insuring recovery from low-voltage spikes. The part costs virtually nothing, required no more than a handful of lines of code, and occupies the board space of a small DIP. Though it may seem weird to use a full computer for this trivial function, it's cheaper than a PAL.

Not that there's anything wrong with PALs. Nothing is faster or better at dealing with complex combinatorial logic. Modern super-fast versions are cheap (we pay $12 in singles for a 7 nanosecond 22V10), easy to use, and their reprogramability is a great savior of designs that aren't quite right. PALs, though, are terrible at handling anything other than simple sequential logic. The limited number of registers and clocking options means you can't use them for complicated decision making. PLDs are better, but when speed is not critical a computer chip might be the simplest way to go.

As the industry matures lots of parts we depend on become obsolete. One acquaintance found the UART his company depended on no longer available. He built a replacement in a PIC16C74, which was pin-compatible with the original UART, saving the company expensive redesigns.

In the good old days of microcomputing hardware engineers also wrote and debugged all of the system's code. Most systems were small enough that a single, knowledgeable designer could take the project from conception to final product. In the realm of small, tractable problems like those just described, this is still the case. Nothing measures up to the pride of being solely responsible for a successful product; I can imagine how the designer's eyes must light up when he sees legions of kids skipping down the sidewalk flashing their L.A. Gears at the crowds.
*************

I remembered this thread and thought it would add some credibility to the "Professional" camp. Microchip hasn't sold 3 BILLION PICs to hobbyists alone!

[T.Jackson]

Microchip hasn't sold 3 BILLION PICs to hobbyists alone!

Probably about 0.02% of that 3 billion, if that!

[Normnet]

BGA solder

Fortunately, i know someone in Montreal who can solder them for me with the right machine. I already tried with a heat gun... it worked.. but it's not something i would use for massive production.

Found: http://www.schmartboard.com/index.asp?page=products_bga
BGA up to 400 balls.
.27 and 1.0mm pitches.
.8 and .5mm in the future.

http://www.schmartboard.com:80/index...cts_qfp&id=116
QFP, 128 - 240 Pins 0.5mm Pitch

How do you program Blackwater micro's outside of the development board for production?
Socket programmer?
In circuit programming?
Schematic or link?

Norm

[Art]

Laugh out loud! People make money with brains, work, or gutsy risk taking
whatever their tools are, chips aren't much good on their own really,
what a silly question.
And proof ha ha.